Paintings & Drawings2020produced

12 CARDS

Twelve black cards, each one a page of the same language

Twelve black cards laid out in two columns of six on a white sheet, each drawn in pale gold with constellations, tools, seed heads, small framed pictures and rows of marks

The same twelve cards laid out in two rows of six, seen from directly above — In two rows of six they read left to right, like a page of writing.

Twelve cards of black paper with torn edges, each drawn in pale gold: a constellation joined by dotted lines, a ruler, a hand with rays coming off it, a small framed picture inside the picture, a seed head, a coil of rope, rows of tally marks. Nothing on any card explains itself and nothing repeats from one to the next.

They are made to be seen as a set. Laid out in two rows of six they read left to right like a page of writing in a language with no dictionary; laid out in a column of pairs they read like a calendar. Neither arrangement is the right one.

The twelve cards from a low angle in raking light, the torn edges of the card casting shadows — From the side, the torn edges come back.

Same method as the books and the five-metre panel: the gold is not paint. The colour was lifted out of the black paper with bleach, so every mark is the sheet showing through, and none of them could be taken back.

May 2020.